All posts tagged world cup 2010

In the media center at the G-20 meeting in Toronto, there was no need for journalists to check who’d won the Uruguay-South Korea game Saturday morning. The silence was enough.

In one corner of the room, an excited group of South Korean reporters who’d been glued to a TV set had slowly drifted away. When their team equalized Uruguay’s earlier first goal their whoops of joy filled the cavernous facility in which the world’s press are gathered. But then it all went quiet. Uruguay had just scored a win-clinching second goal. With the South Koreans’ opponents’ not represented at the G-20, there were no offsetting emotional outbursts from fans of the other side, just the agony of the losers’ defeat.

Amid talk of fiscal consolidation, development aid and reforming global institutions, the leaders of Germany and Britain have something important to discuss at the G-8: the Soccer World Cup.

The German-English football rivalry is among the most intense in soccer. Though England beat Germany in the final of its one world cup victory in 1966, Germany have more usually triumphed typically breaking English hearts through penalty shootouts.

The U.K.’s David Cameron found time to commiserate with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for their teams finishing last in its group. With Italy out, Berlusconi told Cameron he is switching his allegiance to England. Why not? The English national team is now managed by Italian Fabio Capello.

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